


The Things We Do For Love

by historiareiss



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 18:32:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9337706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historiareiss/pseuds/historiareiss
Summary: "I must tell Padmé myself. I am coming with you to the Senate's headquarters."All this pressure about Padmé does not escape Obi-Wan, but he does not let himself grow wary of his Padawan's true intentions with Senator Amidala. Anakin merely wishes to apologize for his reckless actions that will probably famish her homeplanet and its people. "Very well. The Senators can't hurt you worse than the High Council will back at the Temple anyway."But for the first time in forever, Obi-Wan is wrong.





	

" _ **W**_ hat possessed you that you killed their leader on a diplomatic mission?", Obi-Wan sounds more annoyed than actually mad. A Jedi must never let fear or anger get the best of him, after all.  
Anakin just wish it were as easy for him, to cast feelings aside and act solely on rationality and common sense. But alas, when the Trade Federation's leader threatened to starve Naboo's people by the means of a severe taxation of trade routes, until an agreement with the Senators was reached, Anakin's mechanical hand ran to his lightsaber before Obi-Wan's wise cold words could even leave his lips.  
"I am sorry, Master. I-" Anakin breaks off, since whatever explanation he will try to give Obi-Wan, wouldn't be the real one anyway.   
The real reason he killed Nute Gunray was that Naboo is Padmé's homeplanet and that she cares about her people so much that she cannot bear to see them suffer, let alone starve to death. It would break her heart, and he couldn't allow it.  
  
" _ **O**_ h, don't apologize to me. You will have to explain to the Senate and the Jedi Council now. We were supposed to negotiate a compromise between the Republic and the Trade Federation, but you killed their Viceroy and now Naboo will be left out of trade routes and the provision of food all the same!"

 _ **A**_ nakin's heart aches at the prospect. Padmé will be furious. Even worse, Padmé will be grief-stricken to learn this. "There must be a way. We can find a way out of this?" As the young Jedi Knight fumbles for words and impossible solutions, tears start to wet his eyes.  
Obi-Wan shakes his head in exasperation at this point. Their spaceship is racing in hyperspace as fast as light allows.   
Anakin's harsh act couldn't be excused in front of such a large crowd of merchants and envoys, so the two of them had to flee and save their skins first and foremost.   
It was too late for diplomacy anyway, now that the Trade Federation and the Confederacy of Independent Systems wanted their heads, in payment for killing one of their high-ranking members. And so they are on the run, a garrison of battleships after them. But that is the last of Anakin's concerns right now.

" _ **P**_ admé must never learn of this." The young Jedi rules, fear and despair in his eyes, as he racks his brain to find a way out of this tricky situation.   
He is the best Jedi in the entire galaxy, a legend of barely 19, the Chosen One, but politics give him a headache.  
"By now she will have already heard of this. And we can't flee forever, Anakin. You must go to them and confess your failure before it is too late."

 _ **R**_ 2-D2's squeaking in the back of the spaceship's deck flight colludes painfully with Anakin's nerves. His entire system is on edge and he is so close to snapping. Once again, Obi-Wan senses fear in him. The same fear that Yoda warned him a thousand times against.  
"Calm down, my young Padawan. We are not lost yet. We have friends both on the Council and in the Senate."

" _ **W**_ e must save Naboo, Obi-Wan. We can't let them starve. We will negotiate with the Federation's new leader and-"  
"We? We are lucky if they will ever trust us with anything again." Obi-Wan mocks his Padawan's naive rushed plans, much to Anakin's own chagrin. "Chancellor Palpatine and the Senators will talk the Federation out of their vengeful intentions, if they can manage. But you, Anakin, you go back to the Jedi Temple immediately. For your own safety."

 _ **A**_ s the hyperspace dissolves before them, and the familiar constellations of the Galactic Core are visible again, Anakin feels a cold rage clench around his guts. Like a dragon eating at him from the inside, except this one dragon breathes ice in place of fire.  
"I must tell Padmé myself. I am coming with you to the Senate's headquarters."

 _ **A**_ ll this pressure about Padmé does not escape Obi-Wan, but he does not let himself grow wary of his Padawan's true intentions with Senator Amidala.   
Anakin merely wishes to apologize for his reckless actions that will probably famish her homeplanet and its people.   
"Very well. The Senators can't hurt you worse than the High Council will back at the Temple anyway."

 _ **B**_ ut for the first time in forever, Obi-Wan is wrong. Anakin has never endured a worse humiliation than the Senators' disappointed and judging eyes pinning him on the spot where he stood, motionless and speechless. Not even Master Windu with his stern glare could ever make his heart and pride sink lower than that.  
Onaconda Farr and Bail Organa give him no break with their specific questions, while Rush Clovis, a suspected Separatist, dare scowl at him, as if he was the traitor of the two.  
Chancellor Palpatine is the only one who speaks in his favor, surprisingly enough, blaming the mistake on his youth and fierce sense of justice, rather than recklessness and stupidity.

 _ **A**_ nakin can bear their scowling and reproaching, but it's Padmé's chilly and poised look that makes his skin crawl, and for a moment he wishes to be swallowed by the earth underneath his feet.   
She lets her fellow senators speak, and when they are done with the questions, Anakin interrupts them before they can even decide what to do with him.

" _ **P**_ admé, I came to apologize. I intend to solve everything with the Federation and make sure that Naboo gets its supplies." He pleads, as a little boy would after a mischief.   
Except the murder of a Viceroy was no mere childish mischief, and Padmé loves her people even more than she loves him. This is what Anakin fears, as he finally meets his wife's eyes.  
The Senators exchange shocked looks, as everyone in the Senate Chamber wonders what Senator Amidala will say next.

 _ **S**_ he just sighs and her long eye-lashes collide for a moment, as she tries to blink the weariness away from her eyes.   
She must have gone through the most trying seats and tiresome debates in the last hours following Nute Gunray's death at the hands of her husband.   
Anakin can't help feeling like the last man in the galaxy for causing all this to the woman he loves. But she has to forgive him, so they can find a solution together. All he ever did, he did for her.

" _ **W**_ e thank you for your services, Jedi. You are dismissed from your duty. The Senate will deliberate over the course of action to adopt without your help henceforth."   
Her words ring hollow inside his ears like thin chimes of glass, as cold as the metal of his arm.  
"Padmé, please..." Anakin mutters one last prayer to his wife under his breath as the Senators slowly walk past him and leave the Gathering Chamber, their whisperings an unbearable noise as loud as thunderclap in Anakin's head.

 _ **P**_ admé is the last one to leave her seat but she doesn't meet Anakin's glance once their shoulders come into contact for a brief second. She doesn't speak either, her face a mask of brittle marble, beautiful and diplomatic even in her grief.  
Chancellor Palpatine follows close behind her, but, unlike the others, he stops for a moment, and he says something that only Anakin can hear, something that makes him falter.

" _ **A** h, the things we do for love._"


End file.
